Application of liquid to filter cakes



2 M 1 m a e h 1 S v e e Sh ES M2 C R E T L9 I2 m YO E L O o C t W B S F d F N 1 EF .T A G I L. P P A 2 3 9 1 a 9 g M INVENTOR FRANCIS. B.CO EY Aug. 9, 1932.. F; B. COLEY APPLICATION OF LIQUID TO FILTER CAKES? 2 Sheets-Sheet 2v Filed Sept. 10, 1929 INVENTOR FR NCIS.B.CO Y

Patented ago 9, i 3:

FRANCES B. COLBY, OF WESTEORT, QQNNEGTICUT, ASSIGNOB, BY MESNE ASfiEGNlLEENTS, IQ THE DORE, COMPANY, 1316., OF NEW YQBK, N. 3., A CORPQRATION OF DELAWARE APPLICATIGN OF LIQUID T FILTER CAKES Application filed septeinher 10,1928. Serial No, 391,688.,

This invention relates toimprovements in the application of relatively small quantities of liquid to filterg eakes, and is particularly directed to an arrangement suitable for ape plying wash water or othcr liquid to such cakes during the normal operation of standard types of filter, especially the continuous rotary types. W

In the operation of a rotary drum filter,

' to such as heretofore in use, the filtrate in the pulp is passed through a filter medium in the filtering zone and is drawn ed. The

solids separated from the filtrate collect on the filter medium and in the rotation of the t5] drum form a continuous ayer or cake passing out of the filtering zone. The material in the cake still contains a substantial amount of filtrate which it may be desirable to remove. For this purpose wash water, or other W liquid, is sprayed on the cake as it passes through'a washing 'zone, and as a wash filtrate is drawn off through the cake. The cake maythen, if desired, be dried in a drying zone as by suckin air therethrough and is stripped ,from the lter material to render it agaln suitable for use in the filtering zone.

The cake as it rises from the filtering zone is relatively soft and loose, as it consists simply of particles held together by adhesion which in many cases is relatively slight, so that the cake is quite delicate and is readily broken. Furthermore, as drying progresses there is a tendency with most materials for the cake to shrink and crack as it becomes drier.

It is a desideratum, however, in order to obtain the best results, both in the washing and drying operations, to prevent, as far as possible, the formation of any substantial holes or cracks in the cake'either from drying or from injury to the soft cake; inasmuch as, if such holes or cracks exist in the portion ofthe cake in the washing zone, the water will be drawn through such parts of the cake and the rest of the cake will not be acted on to any, substantial extent, and, if this condition exists in the drying zone, the drying action will be injuriously affected in the same general way.

Holes or cracks may be caused by the manher in which thevvash water is applied to the cake. Forexample, the impact of the water against the cake should not be too heavy. This is true even in the event that the distribution of wash water on the cake is fairly uniform, but trouble is more easily avoided under such circumstances in that the pressure or flow can readily be reduced as required. If, however, the distribution is uneven there is much greater-difiiculty in so that, in supplying a suitable or minimum amount to one area, the supply to another area may be excessive and sufiiciently so to cause -damage to the cake. Even in the event that there is no breakage due to uneven wetas ting of the cake theremay be a lack of uni formity in the Washing and. a lack of uniiormity in the drying.

When fiat nozzles are used there is a tendency to insufiieient breaking "u of the water into spray and to too heavy impact of the water against the cake. In order to obtain 55 a good spray the velocity of the water leaving a nozzle of this type is such as to cause too heavy impact on the cake, and, if the velocity is reduced, the water is not sufficiently broken up into spray and there is a tend- 9 ency to form drops with consequent liability of damage to the cake. Nozzles of the round type are more satisfactory in these respects than those of the fiattype; but the water emerges from each of them in a cone in which '95 the liquid is evenly distributed and, where use is made of aplurality of such nozzles in alignment, these cones overlap and give rise to further problems relative to uniformity of distribution. Another difficulty with the round type of nozzle is that where the tively la amount of water to be supplied is'small, each nozzle must be so small that there is dang r of the clogging of such nozzles by particles of material in the wash water.

The main object of the present invention is-to provide an arrangement adapted to supply as small amount of liquid to the surface of the cake as may be desired, with much greater uniformity than has heretofore been possible with small amounts of liquid such as wash water, and without marring delicate cakes by dripping; or impact due to uneven distribution of the liquid. general is accomplished by adapting an atom izer type of spray for such use.,I thereby accomplishing the further object of eliminating diiiiculties from clogging lino nozzles since this type oi spray permits the use of role go and open nozzles ii'z supplying the i1 hi.

" ohieets and advautag ges of the in- "will be apparent consideration of the ioilowing descri} the {9.660211% panying drawings, in w Fig. l is a vertical view on the line o iilter en'ihedyin the pres erse sectional 2 or? rotary invention; a 2 is a slew showing 1e interior reach a in side elevation and other parts in longitudinal vertical section;

Fig. 3 is a view ill straining the distribution of water from a plurality of round nozzles; and

Fig. 4 isa view similar to 5% illustrating the distribution of water from a plurality of atomizer units.

The pneumatic atomizing means for supplying wash water to the calte in a washin v zone is here illustrated in connection wit a rotary internal drum filter of the Dorr type. Ingeneral such atomizing means may include atomizer units, each having a water nozzle and an air nozzle to direct air across the outlet of the water nozzle which is of suliicient cross section'to prevent clogging.

upwardly or downwardly and also to vary the position of the atomizer unit as a whole. \Vutcr and auarc supplied to the atomizer units by supply pipes or lines entering the drum -from one end and which may be used 0 to support the atomizer units. In. the illus-- trated form of the invention the atomizer units are mounted for rotation about an axis parallel to the axis of the drum on brackets mounted on said supply liner and adjustable along and around said pipes. T0 permit adjustment of tbeatomizer units to different positions and the relative adjustment of the nozzles in each unit,- air and water are supplied to the corresponding nozzles by flexible connections such asflexiblctubes.

This object in Referring to the drawings, designates a drum or shell having ends 11 and 12 and which may be supported for rotation by suitable means such as a riding ring 13 adjacent the end 12 of the drum and restim on suitable positioned rollers 14, and a hollow trunnion 15 projecting from the other end 11 of the drum and journaled in a bearing 16. Rotation of the drum may be effected by means of a worm wheel 17 fixedon the trunnion 15 at its outer end and meshing with a worm 18 on a driving shaft 19..

The drum is provided at its interior with filter material 26 which extends completely around the drum and from end to end therof and is arranged to provide oanels or cells 2i. which arc seale.d from one 1 other to prevent the passage of liquid directly from cell cell. The filter material usually consists of a iilter medium which may he cloth of suit able hacking n'iatc iul to hold the filter inedi um against pressure due to (action ted in the various cells 2i. erein the u ter material as a whole is designated by 20* and the panels are formed by channels 22 e2" endin longitudiuall of t e drum and seemed h t J thereto at the inner sur ice thercoi and ar ranged at suitable intervals around the atrium the filter 20 being ressed down into said channels 22 and held in position by meniher To provide suction therein each of said cells isconnected at the end 11 of the drum with a suction line 24 extending into the trunnion 15 and connected with a suitable movable valve or ring 25., which is here shown as formed integral with worm wheel 17 and may be of any suitable form now in use. The movable valve ring 25 cooperated with a suitable stationary valve plate or ring 26 connected at the lower part thereof with a main suction line 27 and at its upper partwith a pressure line 28 so that when each cell 21 rises substantially to the top of the drum pressure will be applied to remove cake from the filter material and cause it to drop into a suitable hdpper 29 extending longitudinally of the drum at the inside thereof.

The hopper 29 is provided at its bottom with a suitable trough 30 in which is positioned a conveying device, such as actuated by a shaft 32. Adjacent to the end 12 of the drum the hopper 29 is connected with a tubulur member 33'coaxial with theshaft 32 and asv eea their outer ends the members 37 are supported by posts 38 and are connected by a cross member 39 on which is provided a bearing 40 for the shaft 82. At the other end of the drum the shaft 32 is journaled in a spider l1 mounted in the outer end of the tubular member 33. Adjacent to the bearing 40, the shaft 32 is provided with a bevel gear 42 which meshes with a bevel gear 43 on a driving shaft 4%.

Pulp is supplied to the interior of the drum by means of a supply pipe 45 passing inwardly between the members 3? and then downwardly, as indicated in Fig. l to direct the pulp to the screen at its downwardly moving side substantially at the level at which the pulp is maintained in the filter. As indi catcd by the arrow in Fig. 1 the drum rotates in a clockwise direction. The pulp is main-' tained at the desired level by propercorrelw tion between the feed of the pulp and the withdrawal of the filtrate by suction. It, however, the pulp rises to the level of the lower part of the opening 3% it will overflow therethrough.

.To supply air and water for washingthe cake according to the present invention, there are provided'an air line 46 and a water line 47 projecting into the drum 3% in the end 12. The air line is arranged above the water pipe and these lines or pipes are" supported by means of strap brackets 48 connected at their 7 upper ends with the wall of the hopper 29 at the side where the washing is efiected and at their lower ends with brackets 49 attaclied to the hopper at its bottom. Preterably there is an even number of atomizer units 50, half of them being mounted on the air line 16 andthe other half on the water line ll and they'are arranged in pairs sub.

stantially in vertical planes. Each'of these units includes air air nozzle 51 and a water nozzle '52 slidably mounted in arms of a support or block 53 so that air from the air nozzle will blow across the end of the water nozzle and drive water flowing therefrom in atoniized condition against the cake as it passes through the washing zone. Both nozzles are held in position by set screws 5d and may be adjusted so as to be in any desired relation with respect to each other. The heads of the nozzles are preferably separate from the bodies and are larger than the bodies sothat able devices 59, such as bolts-or screws. Each" bracket 58 is also provided with ring 60 fitting around the corresponding pipe, 46 or a? so that the bracket may be adjusted around and along the pipe and be secured in any desired position by means. of a set screw 61. For the purpose of supplying water and air to each of the atomizer units each of the lines 46 and 4:7 may be provided with cross talre-ofi's 62, each of these take-oil's on the line 46 being connected by a flexible connection with such hose 63 with an air nozzle of one of the upper units and an air nozzle of one ofthe lower units and each take-off on the line being connected in the same general manner with a water nozzle of one of the 30 upper units and with a water nozzle of one of the lower units. I

It will be evident that the various parts of the atomizing means may be adjusted to meet substantially any requirements which. would arise in practice. The distribution of water from a plurality of circular nozzles is illustrated in Fig. 3 in which 65 indicates each of the substantially circular areas (corresponding in each 599 case to a cross section of one of the conical sprays) receiving water from a single spray nozzle. lln order to supply a suitable amount of wash water to parts of the cake between the central parts of two adjacent sprays, the spray areas should overlap in a zone 66 to enable the increased concentration of water from the two sprays to compensate for the short length of said zone 66, in the direction of travel of the cake, as compared with the 1% length of corresponding zones nearer the cen ters of such areas 65. If the distributionof water throughout each circular area were uniform, the amount of overlap could be deterinined with considerable accuracy. However,

it has been found that the water is more concentrated near the conical surface of the spray and consequently in an annular zone 67. For this reasonit is difficult to obtain, with round nozzles, the desired degree of uni- 1 tormity ,under all conditions met in use.

As illustrated in Fig. 4, the distribution throughout the spray from an atomizer unit of the present invention is substantially uniform. Consequently the circular spray areas 68, Fig. 4,1nay be overlapped in zones 69 so as to produce substantially uniform distribution of water on the cake in the washing zone, suitable allowance being made for the relatively short lengths of such zones as corn- 1 0 pared with the diameters of the spray areas 68.

When the filter is in use, pulp is supplied through the supply pipe or launder 45 to the interior of the drum 10 at such a rate'as to replace the amount of filtrate through the filter medium and the amount of solids re-' moved in the form of cake, and maintain the pulp in the drum at substantially the same I level at all times. As each panel or cell of 13a the filter material passes beneath or through the pulp in the (lrum'and suction is exerted at this point through a suction line 24 connccted with such cell, filtrate is drawn through the corresponding part of the liltcr medium or material and solids in the form of cake are accumulated on the filter material. When the cell passes above the pulp level and from the filtering zone, the cake on the corresponding portion of filtering material may still contain a considerable quantity of the original liquid. To recover such liquid the cake is sprayed with water from the atomizer units and this water with such residual liquid 1 is drawn oil through the filtering medium by suction.v

Later, either with or without drying in a drying zone, the cake is carried. to the top of the drain and is there acted upon by compressed air from the pressure line to separate it from the filter material and cause it to drop into the hopper 29 from which it is removed by means oi the conveyor screw 31 and discharged from the outer end of the tubular member 33.

It should be understood that various changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of parts without departing from so the true spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim:

Mechanism adapted for use his rotary filter having a rotary drum provided with a filter medium adjacent the inner surface of the periphery of the drum and on which cake is formed in a filtering zone and Washed in a washing'zone; comprising means for harmlessly Washing said cake in the washing zone by applying water uniformly thereto while having no cake-disturbing impact in cluding a water pipe adapted to be located in said drum and to extend longitudinally thereof, an air pipe parallel to the water pipe and above the same, brackets adjustably mounted on said pipes, each bracket on the air pipe corresponding to abracket on the water pipe, an atomizer unit adjustably mounted on each "bracket and including an air nozzle and a water nozzle, cross take-oils in each pipe in correspondence with the brackets thereon, and two flexible tubes extendin from each take-oil and connected one w1th the corresponding. nozzle, of an atomizer unit on one of said pipes and the other with the corresponding nozzle of an atomizer on the other 1pc.

In testimony whereo I aflix my signature.

FRANCIS B. COLEY. I 

